One in ten social benefit recipients are foreign citizens

One in ten of the people who received the extra social bonus the Greek government allocated from its budget surplus were foreigners.

According to figures based on the final applications, 97,000 were from Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania, 9,700 hailed from as far away as India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Egypt, the Philippines and China, while 1,500 people were from Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Britain.

The data showed that people from a total of 172 countries have collected the bonus, as Alpha TV reported. The online platform where people could apply to receive the social benefit (www.koinonikomerisma.gr) closed last night on December 26.

The online platform remained open on the final day to cater for single-parent families, people aged over 67 years, single-person households that host a disabled people over the 67% threshold.